The Illegal Immigrant's Lending Library
by Shmarah
Summary: "After she 'donated' a plethora of books from the world across the border, that gap hag, Marisa didn't fail to take notice. Now that the book thief's fallen in love with what's outside the outside, how can I follow if I can't even brave the front lawn?"
1. Loading Screen

This I'll finish.

No, seriously. I have the rest of the story. I'll finish this'un. Like, srsly.

This is PachuMari, but to all the MariAri fans [especially those who read my last fanfic, which was MariAri...] I hate to seem all 'disloyal betrayer of our fandom!' and such and such, but I enjoy Marisa's whole d*mn harem as a subject, sincerely. Maybe after this, I'll torture Nitori.

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><p><span>Introduction<span>

**Loading Screen: Yukari Yakumo**

One day in April, I came back into my study after a tea break which, despite its briefness, took a good amount of coaxing by my good friend Remilia to persuade me to attend, only to see none other than Yukari Yakumo, the youkai of boundaries, perusing my books-rather, arranging them.

In fact, she was replacing them. Pulling precious memorabilia concerning the process of cellular respiration and how it relates to photosynthesis in a beautiful food cycle, treating painful bowel movements in kappa, and autobiographies written by the greatest tree pruners of Gensokyo's time... Hurtfully, my treasures were tossed aside unceremoniously. Koakuma, my assistant, shuffled in from the hall behind me, wide-eyed. She too was dead-silent, although not out of shock like I, but because she tended to act that way when others were around.

She, the busty, tall, blonde, gorgeous youkai of the border_,_ was stuffing the second to last bookshelf in the third column with her own books, taken out of a shockingly large sack behind her. Ran assisted, putting books in the higher shelves where I was sure Yukari was too lazy to reach for.

"E-excuse me! What do you think you're doing in my study?"

"What's your study doing with me in it?" She said, nonchalantly. She didn't even look up.

I hadn't had my iron pills today. Dearest Sakuya had originally gone through all the trouble to go to Eientei and... persuade... Eirin for them, to help with my anemia.

I really wasn't in the mood for a fight, nor would I be able to hold my own too well in one, but it was what Yukari was asking for.

Even more to my horror, Chen came tearing past me as I stomped angrily toward her master, [technically her master's master...] and she certainly wasn't treating the book on female Moon Rabbit pregnancies in her mouth with the respect is deserved, cartwheeling around.

"_Nyaaaaaaaaaaaaan_~!"

"Cheeennnnn!" Ran scolded. Koakuma giggled, and scuttled from my side to see the shikigami.

"Yakumo-san, what are these books?" I demanded, picking one out of her sack, right and ready to whack her with it until she left.

"I'm getting rid of junk. Rinnosuke couldn't sell these, and I certainly have no use for them. They've been building up, and where else am I supposed to put them? Stuff them into the little oni?" She grinned, as if she would actually prefer that. "So here, you can use them to waste more of your useless time. You're the one reading the scraps of the ancients," she scoffed. She was only quoting Zhuangzi, as in the ancient Chinese Taoist text Zhuangzhi. Amateur.

Offended, I still couldn't help but crack open one of the books. I thought it'd be something on Confucius or whatever, but instead...

"W-what is this? M-meija Riigu Beisubarru?" I asked, staring at a picture of some athletic, strong male holding a large metal stick and a white sphere. How had she, anyway, put pictures in these... books? How incredibly... surreal!

Yukari chuckled at me. "Major League Baseball. This one is HIV AIDS, this one about playing poker, and this one about how computer chips work." I dodged Chen, who was cartwheeling around doing absolutely nothing beneficial to anyone. This was strange, being that her master lectures everyone else on how to spend their time wisely after every d*mn battle.

'The petty person dwells retired and commits misdeeds, little shut-in."

Says the girl who sleeps all day and leaves her shikigami to do the work. Quoting Confucius, my butt, the mediocre little smartas-

I mean, smart... as...

Smart...

As Cirno.

[I am attempting to cut back on my foul language.]

I gritted my teeth and shook my finger. "Where are these from? What are these, you gap hag?"

"From the other side of the border. The humans from the so-called, 'normal world.' These have been building up with me for a while for... Reasons." She grinned again, that signature, 'I-know-things-you-don't-and-think-it's-hilarious' sort of grin she had.

I held up a book with a white rabbit and a blonde girl on the cover. She sort of looked like... Margatroid. Except prettier. Much prettier than Margatroid.

"That's Alice in Wonderland. Pure idiot, that girl. Ooh, you know what this one is?" She paused while taking a book out to show me, 'Agatha Christie' written in large letters. Ran glanced over at us, disinterestedly. "It's, And Then There Were None. I started skimming and I said, 'Oh, U. N. Owen was really, _her_?'" she laughed as if it were the greatest joke ever.

I didn't get it.

"Look, I'm okay with getting new books and all..." [It had somewhat hurt for me to show her how I felt somewhat joyful... ] "But... first of all, tell your little shikigami to stop treating my old books that way...! M-mukyuu!"

I was feeling a bit dizzy, as is what happens when I don't get my iron. Especially in moments of stress. Hm, maybe if I'd felt a bit better that day, maybe I would have given Yukari the beating she deserved and tossed her, her animalistic slaves, and those books out right there and then. Maybe if I weren't such a book girl, I would have had them burnt, pages, binding, and all, via explosive spell cards. Maybe if I weren't stupid, maybe if I'd known, perhaps none of what happened would have happened...

Laughable.

Just laughable, looking back at it all.

Koakuma, the dear she was, took Chen's hand and stopped her cartwheeling, pulling out a specific book to distract the nekomata with. Boy, did those two shikigami shut-up quick...

I sighed. "Can't you... Hurry up and go? Are these things even safe?"

I'll admit. I, that is, Patchouli Knowledge the hikikomori, was always a little fearful of going outside in general. But... outside outside?

An outside world... outside of the sufficiently frightening outside world?

I hoped I didn't sound like a scared little child in front of the busty Yukari, that frilled white crinoline under her tight violet dress, stretching over her bust like plastic wrap, free of a single bit of grime despite the fact she spent actual time outside, not to mention _further_ than that...

Sure enough, though, she laughed outwardly at me. "Oh, I'm sorry if you get a speck of dust that doesn't agree with you, wittle shut-in girl. I'm surprised you don't assume I have some ulterior motive with this like everyone else might. You're dumber than most in this world." I humiliatingly failed at containing my surprise, my purple eyes revealing everything her violet ones looked for.

"What do you mean by that? _Do_ you have an ulterior motive?" I demanded. Iron pills or not, this girl was aggravating me, and the book in my hands was one more rude remark away from spitting fire out of its binding.

"Aha! Just let me know if your burglarising little lover finds these new additions interesting or not," she grinned.

I'm ashamed that I hesitated with my answer, and I'm sure my droopy eyes widened on my red face at such a remark.  
>[To be fair, I did happen to be distracted, as at that moment I noticed that Koakuma was showing Chen and Ran... what you might call hentai.<br>...Explicit hentai.

Scares me that she knew where exactly to find the book...]

"Oh-oh just, get _**out **_of here! You're not even ordering them correctly! I'll do it _myself_!" I said, turning my indignant attention back to their mistress. I grasped angrily at ways to change the subject before she said something that really got me stressed out, like...

"Oh, loooook~ This one you've probably heard of. Rapunzel. Locked up in her tower, her love comes to visit her mounted on her broom, the beautiful Marisa Ki-"

"**OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!"**

The books that weren't singed in the resulting explosion I later set to work arranging, properly and with great amounts of respect.

* * *

><p>Ne? Neeeeeee?<p>

Forgive my strange attempts at humor. I'm mediocre like that.


	2. Stage 1

Hello again.

So, someone mentioned that since the SDM came from the outside world, they should have a generally better idea of it, ne? Especially since it was sometime estimated around 1998...

=Drabbly loser excuse explanation here that contains some spoilers=

However, in Silent Sinner in Blue [a comic which story was by ZUN; you can download it at Touhou Wiki. You can get everything at Touhou Wiki.] Yukari employs Remilia and crew to come up with a way to get to the moon... I'll try not to spoil for you, but Patchouli had no books on how the outside world made its rocketry and junk that got them to the moon. She had not many books on outside world technology in general. [Sakuya ended up having to go to Kourindou and ask Rinnosuke to dig up some book on rockets for her.]

This got me thinking, Patchy's library is huge, but she hasn't got much on the outside world? She didn't even know what rockets looked like, and she was surprised to find out that they were made of several different cylindrical parts. Or something smart like that.

Then, of course, the great Pachu was able to figure ROCKET SCIENCE out. Something else I read about Marisa's profile in EoSD and the fact that I wanted to do a PachuMari fic... It made this. So enjoy chapter one.

=Forgive me, please=

I call them stages instead of chapters because that makes me cool. [Lame.]

* * *

><p><strong>Stage One: Marisa Kirisame<strong>

_She envied even the mere flower petals falling in another world._

"Heyy, Pat-chyyy! How be yuu, da-ze?"

Oh, beaver dam it.

"I'm bad, very bad," I grumbled, barely audible, as Marisa Kirisame, the local 'ordinary black magician' here in Gensokyo, burst through the library doors on her broomstick. [The mini-hakkero jetting her broom forward was dangerously close to lighting half my library on fire with its magical, and troublingly destructive, stars.]

Quite sincerely, to me at least, that girl was anything but 'ordinary.'

"Waaaaah?" Marisa asked, with a concern that I couldn't tell whether was feigned or genuine. She dismounted her broom a couple of yards away from the desk where I sat and promptly waltzed over to wrap her arms quite rudely around my neck. "But why? I bet it's Koakuma bullying you, ze."

The aforementioned devil looked up at this, accustomed to ignoring the girl after she started coming so often as she did. She tossed her red hair aside, some sticking to her face with perspiration after having worked hard that afternoon, and smiled a mischievous grin right back at the black-white.

My dear attendant knew the drill as well as I: Marisa would prance herself in, and one of the two of us would either fight her or not; she still always got the books she was after. Comics, manga, medicinal herb guides, books on 'mushroomology' as she called it, or [the more troubling] spell-book of mine: she mostly stuck to those particulars, at least, before everything else happened.

Afterwards, she'd leave quickly without a 'thank you,' a simple, 'good-bye.' Just a laugh at me in my defeat, probably thinking something like, "Oh, what a useless shut-in doing nothing with her long life. She's a youkai, isn't she? Wasting her time away."

Or maybe, "What a jerk; why can't she be generous and share willingly? She thinks she's all pitiful with her anemia and her asthma and her frailty, but she's really just a hikikomori b*tch."

Or perhaps the cruelist, "Pshh. Alice worked diligently to get to the youkai state she's in now, and I'm training hard too, while Patchouli's just a lazy freeloader. And Margatroid is way prettier compared to her, with her crazy purple hair."

At least, that was my opinion of myself. And, being Patchouli Knowledge, I'm always right, aren't I?

…Not that the purple hair thing was my choice.

"Koakuma's not doing anything, except being helpful. Now, if I asked her to be really helpful, she could be kicking your a—"

I stopped myself.

"Kicking your bottom."

I winced as I realized my mistake when I saw Marisa's teasing face come a mere centimeter away from mine.

"Ooooooh? What's this, ze? Pachu's trying not to curse? She's being a good girl, ze?" She smiled, that signature 'Marisa-Da-Ze-Smile' of hers, and she seemed to glow, her beaming grin with her white little snag tooth sparkling, her smiling, golden, cat-like eyes, her shining blond hair glinting like dandelions even in the dim library light…

"Get out of here. Get out right this instant, you lying, thieving,_ jerk_."

The freckled apples of her cheeks turned down, and it was then I saw her happy grin had been but a plastic one—something was bugging her.

Patting down her cotton laced apron, loosely binding a black skirt over a crinoline one so that they hugged her elfin waist, I saw something that was a rare sight on any Gensokyan, especially on Marisa: hatred, anger, sadness—aimed at herself.

This mere moment was in itself more shocking than even Yukari's visit.

"Patchouli, I ain't gonna' sugarcoat it. I need something… a favor of you," she said, turning on her heel and sauntering, hands folded neatly behind her back, down the lengthy aisle of bookshelves.

She stopped abruptly at the second to last bookshelf in the third column.

"The proper grammar would be 'am not' and 'going to,' Marisa," I corrected her, turning my head to watch where she was going. If she thought she was going to make off with a handful of my books now…

Without even a crude remark on my geeky grammar corrections, she looked into my eyes, a hand on the wooden shelf as if it were a kind creäture she had longed to touch.

"Have you ever been outside? Outside our world, Patchouli? The mansion… It came from there, didn't it? And it's beautiful… Your library's beautiful. Did I ever tell you that? I've always thought it."

The feeling was akin to a pet owner's dog being praised. "Oh, why, thank you. But there's actually a very long story about the outside world and myself…"

"I need to know, Patchouli. I need to know," she said, with a sudden urgency that startled me.

At this point, Koakuma had silently vanished, presumably slinking away as she was known to do. I stood from my desk, my oak wood desk chair creaking in protest, and I brought myself to where Marisa was dragging her fingers against the edges of the books lined on the shelf, making a thrumming noise on the bindings of the books—Yukari's books.

"Patchouli, I'll stay. I'll stay right here, where you can watch me, ze, and I won't steal a single book. I won't steal anything, ever, ever again, and I won't bother you. You won't even know I'm here. Just one thing, I ask."

Was she proposing what I thought she was proposing?

"…All I want is to read these books. Just let me read every one, every one, ze, and I won't bother you. Ever again."

Every book? Every single book? Coming into my library every day to read every single book in that book-case?

There were hundreds of books that Yukari had brought. Hundreds. A miraculous, world champion speed reader would be visiting every day for, what, two months? That was giving that they visited without a break, for a lot more than just a couple of hours each day. And Marisa definitely didn't strike me as your average, speed reading genius. Not to mention she would be inside my library, my study, _my personal space_, for all that time, every day…

It was decided.

"Sure."

Marisa's face lit up, her eyes wide with joyous disbelief. "…R-really, da-ze?"

"What do I care? Just don't bother Koakuma, either."

Suddenly, she was on top of me again, her arms wrapped from around my back [and her hands dangerously near my chest, may I point out...]

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Patchy, thankyuuuuuuu! You don't know how much this means to me! I've been begging Rinnosuke and Yukari access to some of these books for _ever_!"

When I was relinquished from her cuddly bear hug, Marisa skipped happily to that particular bookshelf and pulled out the very first book on the very top shelf, calling her broom over to help her reach. I had alphabetized the entire case, which was about twice Marisa's height in width and three times that in length.

[In case you haven't noticed, I have time.]

As nonchalantly as possible, I worked my way back to my desk as Marisa sat herself, criss-cross applesauce, in front of the second to last bookshelf in the third column.

Marisa Kirisame opened the first book on April 17th: a flimsy, thin, plastic-shiny book that said on the front, along with another simply surreal illustration of a male human, ADWEEK.

* * *

><p>Ne ne ne neeeee?<p>

Ne?

Neee?

If you don't understand the stuff like hakkeros and spell books and such... Go play Touhou! ^^

And if you don't know who Koakuma is, know that it's Patchouli's midboss in EoSD. She's got bat wings on her head, red hair, thought to be obedient, turns out she's a devil, I mixed both, this is a run-on sentence?

Yeah. Tell me where my stupid spelling/grammar errors are.  
>Thankyuuuuuuuu~luvluv~<p> 


	3. Stage 2

Okay, I'd like to point out that I'm trying some things for the first time:

-AN ACTUAL FINISHED PLOT AND JUNK. LIKE WHOA. REVOLUTION.

-PachuMari: Before, I was all MariAri... Before that, it was ReiMari... I'm bipolar.

-Using dates and times and crap.

-Related to that, skipping chunks of time. Last chapter was in late April, I think, and now we're in May! You have to stuff more crap and junk in that lets people make inferences and junk about what happened... Yay. Inferring. School's cool.

-FINISHING. A STORY. Like, I really think I will this time. REVOLUTIONARY. SERIOUSLY. I've finished stories before, but those were 1-3 or more chapters long... I'LL TRY MY BEST! ^^

* * *

><p><strong>Stage Two: Patchouli Knowledge<strong>_  
>She craved attention, approval, <em>_**power... **__She despised our inability to suffice._

I looked at the clock when my ears suddenly realized the sound of chirping birds: morning already? Mid-morning at that; I'd been so absorbed in completing my research on the anatomy of a frog youkai [which would have gone faster if only a certain frog goddess would have complied to some minor dissection.] Great, another all-nighter. I was sure I'd have bags under my eyes: not because of the lack of sleep, as that was simply a myth, but because I _always_ seem to have bags under my eyes.

Which wasn't usually a problem, except that it was already 7:59AM. Which meant that in a few seconds...

I stole a final glance at the grandfather clock in the wall [Sakuya had installed it, although with her tendencies, I'd bide it useless.] and braced myself...

...

Three.

Two.

One...

*BANG!*

"Patchouliiiiii! Patchy, Patchy, I brought a teacup and a coin and a hankerchief so we can try that trick, _da-ze_!"

Mukyuu, her grammar apalls me...

The trick Marisa was referring to was one out of a book, one of Yukari's additions, of course: Cool Magic Tricks for Kids.

The black-white was enchanted by it, but personally...

Cool?  
><em>Magic<em>?

"Cool Magic" my... butt!

[I refuse to say the alternative word...]

The end of April had approached fast and departed swiftly, and now, May flowers a-bloom [and with minor abnormalities this year,] my seasonal allergies were not making me too perky. Marisa mostly respected my wishes each day, arriving at 8:00AM on the dot, staying quiet and trying her best to keep from being a bother. As you can imagine, this was an enormous task for Kirisame Marisa.

The particular book, decorated with fools in "magical" monochrome garb, was a ridiculous, oversized, and painfully colorful picture book with pointless pages of directions instructing the reader on ways to make a fool of yourself in an attempt to fool someone very, _very_ _**foolish.**_

[You know, I'm trying my very hardest on this 'no cursing' thing.]

I sighed. The girl was really, really enthusiastic about this 'other world' junk, as she was already onto the letter 'C' books, clearing through 'A' and 'B' in a matter of two weeks. It's easier to assume it was none but her newfound obsession driving her.

Koakuma thought it charming.

I thought it... _foolish_.

At her [mockingly] strict instruction, she had Koakuma and I sit crosslegged on the floor in front of my desk. Rudely sweeping my workthings aside to make room for her dandy little performance, Marisa held up a bright coin with a square cut in the center and grinned. "I stole this from Onozuka-san while she was slacking off under a tree!"

Not too hard to believe. I smiled gently to show her my approval; If you didn't show the human you were impressed when she was trying to show off her burglary or who knows what else, she would get all mopey and upset.

This, and other habits the 'ordinary' magician had, I discovered after spending so much time with her, as quiet as it [usually] tended to be. Mushrooms were her favorite vegetables although they were really fungi, she was the fan of the same occult doujinshi circle as I, she was scared of getting shots, and she loved technology, especially that of the outside world, persistantly preaching to me how amazingly advanced this techie junk was and how powerful it would be combined with our world's magic.

This worried me sick, but I ran a hand through my purple [I say again, it wasn't my choice] hair and watched as she seated herself on my dark oak desk chair and set her items on the matching table.

"Hey, hey Patchy! Can you see this hankerchief? I know your eyesight totally sucks ze, but you can sorta see it, right?"

I was about two feet away, mind you. I could see it perfectly fine, despite my 20/200 vision.

Koakuma, however, whose eyesight was much sharper, instead gazed off into the distance, her bat wings waving softly, dreamily, shifting her red locks of hair gently. She seemed to be staring, as always, at that certain thing that only she could see...

"Okay, anyway, here's this cup, ze." The classic grin on her face couldn't keep even me from brightening up a bit, as exhausted as I was, while she held out the teacup to me. "Okay, now watch the hankerchief, ze! Watch it!"

She put the hankerchief over the coin and the cup over the hankerchief. Wiggling her slender, bandaged fingers [she always busted up her hands doing who knows what's it] as if that was actually necessary for her 'magic' to work, she slid the cup towards her and asked, with greatly feigned curiousity, "Is the hankerchief still there? Is it? Hmmm?"

"Nope."

She looked over her cup, furrowing her brow. "Wait wha-? What, no! _Yes it is_, ze! Oooo, Patchouli, you're so silly, luv!"

Picking that particular nickname up from a book on Britain she'd read while still in the 'B' books, if she saw me blush, she didn't make note of it.

She slid the cup back onto the hankerchief, and, making a large show of it, flung the cup and the hankie off of the desk [both of which went flying.]

"Ta-da!"

What do you know, the coin had disappeared.

I instantly understood what she'd done; the whole thing seemed pretty stupid. Marisa was like a tiring little child, though; she craved attention, craved approval, and simply needed others to show they were impressed by her. And thus, I couldn't help but say, "Good job, Marisa. That was pretty cool." with an approving nod.

"Really? You mean that?" she beamed, standing and smiling, her blonde braid swinging about.

Really, I didn't. I gave no answer. Unfortunately, Koakuma seemed to have abandoned me silently again, so I couldn't use her to occupy Marisa with the accolades she required given.

"Uwaaa... Patchouli, you think I might be as good as real magicians? Maybe I should have brought glitter or something..."

Now this pushed my buttons. The bad ones.

She moved aside when I came over to collect my work that had been unceremoniously expelled from my desk. I managed to avoid her eye contact-she seemed to have the ability to see right through me-but I was unable to keep myself from contemptuously remarking, "Marisa, you _are _a real magician."

She smiled at me like I was stupid. "No, silly. The real magicians, like, the normal, ordinary human ones."

I looked up at her with disbelief. Too late now, the anger in my eyes sent a wave of hurt towards hers that was all too easy to see.

"You're human. You're an ordinary magician. I think you're pretty normal." I didn't actual mean this, but she was making me grouchier than I already was. I needed an iron pill.

She sighed as if _I _was the naive one.

"I meant the normal human ones from across the border that can do this stuff even without powers. Them, you know, because they're-"

_"Mukyuu!"_

I was quite embarrassed, as that word seemed to come out at the worst times. For example, now.

"Marisa, you can do things _with _powers, _and I _can do even _more _things. You could've made that coin disappear, along with the hankerchief and the tea cup, without doing much more than muttering a spell."

The magician's voice turned defensive, hovering over me as I kneeled painfully on the floor to pick up a pile of spilt books. I tried not to stare at her slender, voluptuous legs...

"But, Patchouli! They don't have any magic or powers, ze, and yet they can clean their room, heat their houses, and do everything that we have to use magic for! By only the year 1903, they were flying, just like we can. Except no magic whatsoever involved."

Ah, this was from the Airplanes book from the 'A' section.

"In 1969, that's just, what, 66 years later? Da-ze, they reached the moon! _Alive! _They're not Lunarian or capable of teleportation, they just wanted to go and they figured it out themselves!"

She'd only taken half a day reading a biography on some guy called 'Armstrong' and yet had remembered all this information.

"They have ways around everything and anything, without our magic, ze. We have it easy, we're just... cheating!"

Cheating! Really, now? Wouldn't she just pipe down and help me pick up my books? Yes, I could pick them up with a snap and a telekinetic spell or two, but even I had a limit on laziness. I didn't, so-called, "cheat."

"My hakkero, you know, Rinnosuke made it with _their _technology. Add just a bit of my magic to this mini thing, and I have the power to blow up this entire mansion! Think about how strong the world would be if our magic were a part of it!"

Seeing how many times she'd attempted the feat of bringing my library to the ground, let alone the entire mansion, this was slightly exaggerated. She'd been going on and on about outside world-mumbo-jumbo like this for ever, but I was just about on my last nerve...

"They're so... smart... So intelligent, so knowledgable," she said dreamily, her passionate voice turning less indignant and more wistful.

You know, I think I would know a little bit more about 'Knowledge.'

"Yukari weakened the border of the Netherworld with Gensokyo so we could go through freely, didn't she? In fact, I was just at Hakyugokurou the other day trying to steal my food back from Saigyouji and Konpaku..." She smiled, and I assumed she'd succeeded, which was quite a feat against Yuyuko when the thievery involved anything edible.

"Patchy, don't you think that maybe... Don't you think the Hakurei border wouldn't be too difficult? She weakens it for the youkai sometimes, doesn't she...? Maybe if she-"

"Oh, would you freakin' shut up? _Shut up__**!"**_

I'd flung myself up off the floor and was now face to face with the girl, her golden eyes wide and huge.

"My goddesses, _Marisa!_ _Don't you_ _**dare**_**...!"**

Halting myself suddenly and squeezing my eyes shut, I took a deep breath, reminding myself that I needed to learn to stay calm. I was tired of having to fighting everyone I knew, enemy and... "friend."  
>Yeah, friends.<p>

"Marisa, don't you _dare_ speak of things so dangerous. Never again."

All this volume hurt to produce. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I slumped into my respective desk chair, leaving whatever papers remained on the floor neglected.

She tried her best to look unhurt, but the way it was clearly defined on her dampened face was harsh. Straigtening her black witch hat on her head, she turned swiftly on her heel, her albescent apron, brightly contrasted against her dress, becoming slightly off-center in the process.

"Well, yeah, you're right. That would be a little much, I guess. Yeah." she sighed, no feelings in the words. Attempting nonchalance, she bent to pick up her teacup that lay astray on the floor, her dark blond hair, like butterscotch pudding and honey, becoming disheveled in the process.

"But still... Wouldn't you love to go there, one day? Doesn't it amaze you? I mean... I know that I sure might like-"

The sound of my chair scraping against the wooden floor so abruptly as I stood made me cringe inwardly.

"Kirisame-san, I think it's time for you to _leave." _I snapped.

The smile on her face was such a forced imitation of her grin, I cringed.

"...Okay, okay, Patchouli, I get it, I'll shut up, ze!" her contemptuous sarcasm dripped poisonous. "I mean, if you _want_ to be so-"

**"**_Now. __**Good-bye."**_

I refused to look up from the ever-so-interesting paper I was pretending to read as she wordlessly dashed out, her hakkero on high power, mounted upon her broomstick.

The tears she vainly attempted to stifle made me feel the need to choke down my own.

After I had kicked her out so grouchily like the b*tch I am, having allowed my lack of sleep to get the better of me, I expected that the remaining books in sections D-Z would remain untouched for the rest of eternity. However, following another all-nighter, except tonight on the verge of tears, I heard the door click open at 8:00AM on the dot...

She didn't look up at me, but I watched silently, fighting to contain my enormous feeling of relief, as Marisa Kirisame sat herself, criss-cross applesauce, in front of the second to last bookshelf in the third column.

Punctual as always.

She opened up the twenty-first book on May 13th, a thick, hardcover novel by some Neil Gaiman and one of the last in the 'C' section: Coraline.

* * *

><p>I don't like this title. Give me ideas.<br>Oh, and forgive my probably terrible spelling/grammar/whatever. Whatever.  
>I FEEL SO HORRIBLE RITE NOW BUT I'M SORRY LOVE YOU GUYS KBAI.<br>Yoroshiku onegaishimasu... Myon~


	4. Stage 3

So, like, 3 more chapters left? I can do it.

I took a break [this summer pretty much killed me] and now, looking back at the past chapters, my writing pretty much sucks. =\

I'll try my best to do what's best: Apologize and finish this story strong.

So I'm sorry, and here we go. A lot of classic literature in this chapter; I hope you all are fond of us literature junkies!

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><p><strong>Stage 3: Voile, the Magic Library<br>**_Dust floats quietly and settles onto the windowsill; are they contemplative fairies?_

_A glimpse into a world where everything is black and white... Are you blind that you can't see our gray world is best?_

Patchouli Knowledge sat solemnly at her study desk as Koakuma quietly hovered about behind her, reading her Grimoire of Knowledge...

I wouldn't admit it to many, but it really _is _just a diary. I flipped through it, stopping occasionally when my eye caught an interesting phrase or two. I sure wrote a lot about Marisa in the past few months, and looking over it all, how we changed... it brought a wave of nostalgia...

**May 25:**

"...She sped right through the 'D' and 'E' sections this month and is now getting started on 'F.' She's ceased all her talk about going to the outside world, and I'm glad. All this 'following her dream' crap is kind of annoying me; there's nothing _wrong _with staying in Gensokyo, heck, there's nothing even wrong with staying inside all day. Look at me.

Okay, that was a bad example..."

**June 4:**

"Eight in the morning, every morning; My, is she punctual!

It's been months and still I'm amazed by her passion, her enthusiasm. Not just for reading, but for the books themselves.

She huddled under my desk and wrapped her arms around my legs all throughout Frankenstein (much to my protest, although I can't say I really... minded...) and I had to plug my ears as she went on and on about The Great Gatsby to Koakuma. (She would have rambled to me about it, but she eventually learned better than to.)

Now she's absolutely obsessed with some messed up book series about Potters or something by a 'J. K. Rowling.' It must be a comedy, because Kirisame-san and Koakuma are having a great time laughing at the examples of 'magic' in those fat books. There are a great amount of them, but that black-white girl is, as expected, reading them at a remarkable speed..."

**June 11:**

"Dear goddess, Kirisame-san is _still _trying to get me to read The Jungle Book. She's poking and prodding me and refuses to give up; I think the only way to satisfy her is to give in and pretend to skim through one of these crap books, mukyuu...

Well, I read it this morning much to Marisa's elation, and I suppose it would be lying to say it was _horrible._

I still don't believe the writing of those human people in the so-called 'outside world' can ever compare to what we can do, but... it was a pleasant experience.

I mean, I haven't read something that wasn't pure fact and science for such a long, long time..."

**June 23:**

"Three of the books in this shelf are of the title The Lord of the Rings and I feel like I should be slightly ashamed when I tell you that I enjoy them almost as much as Marisa.

What can I say; they're fun. If you had told me a couple months ago that I'd be enjoying a book that wasn't all about the proper skin care for vampires with eczema, or the theories behind the tanukis' inflatable testicles, I would have blasted you through the wall.

But they're fun, you know..."

**July 21:**

"Boy, I haven't written in a while, wouldn't you think? I've been forgetting; Marisa is still around, reading these books, and she's already up to The Odyssey by Homer. He's a Greek poet, she tells me, after reading his biography. Her memory and reading retention is truly amazing, wouldn't you agree?

The problem , if you can call it a problem, is that she's getting me to read them, too... and I _like _them.

Is that bad? I feel like I should be upset at myself, but I'm not! I'm actually, looking _forward _to waking up every morning and seeing her come in at eight.

Yes, that's right, 'waking up.' Meaning I've actually been getting sleep, too; just because we're getting along doesn't mean that Marisa and her boundless energy don't wear me out completely!

'The power of love is infinite, ze,' she says when I bring it up, and it makes me smile.

Wait, wait you don't think she means that, like...

Oh, ha! Now she's trying to get Koakuma into her book! Oh, that Kirisame; her determined little grin is so cute...

You know, I promised not to tell, but late last night I saw that Koakuma taking a peek into Macbeth after all the fangirly fuss the two of us made about it. I bet that little devil feels left out; I'll go see if she'd be better interested in Old Yeller."

**July 24:**

"My goddesses, help me. Someone, please give me the patience; Marisa is going to drive me through a _wall!  
><em>We were actually having an intelligent conversation today, a peaceful, intelligent conversation!  
>We both read <span>The Outsiders <span>by S. E. Hinton, and it... it was good.

I quite enjoyed it, and... and it would be another lie to say that it didn't make me tear up a bit. Some of the terminology took a little bit of thinking to understand, and I still don't exactly get what all this fuss about 'grease' is, but... It was a beautiful book, sincerely, and according to Marisa, it was written by some girl when she was 16! I was still practically an infant at that age!

(I understand youkai and human timelines are a bit... different, but still.)

Marisa and I were talking about this and that, having a friendly argument about how I think Dallas was stupid and how she thought he was heroic and cool, wondering why he didn't just _dodge _the bullets, and sharing our anger against the Soc's and sympathy for Johnny...

Until Marisa has to go out and say some more of her outside world crap.

'I wish we could go and meet S. E. Hinton...' and 'Maybe it would make more sense if we lived out there; I heard that the author based the book on where she grew up, you know.'

Mukyuu.

Then we end up getting into a real argument, and now she's gone, and I just want to knock someone's head off!

Can't she just enjoy the books? They're _fiction! _Fictional, fake, unreal, you read them, you get over it! She just wants to live somewhere where she can be special, she just wants to live somewhere where she really just _doesn't belong_, and she thinks that Gensokyo is abnormal, and that the outside world is where everything is real!

If I'm too weird for her because I'm some inhuman, heartless youkai, then whatever, let her prance away to her _normal _humans and leave! She might as well _exterminate _me while she's at it! I just don't care anymore!"

**July 30:**

"...So she apologized...

Ugh, how am I even supposed to feel about this anymore?

I mean, she just came in and then started ranting to me about The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, and then I ended up reading it for myself, and then we were both ranting about how much we hate that Dorian guy... Before I even realize it, Koakuma is giggling at us, exchanging words of passionate anger against Mr. Gray together.

Brought back together through the common hatred of a fictional character.  
>( I still can't stand him! What a book!)<p>

But perhaps I should be thankful to him...

I _really _want to get back to Robinson Crusoe now, while Marisa tackles The Scarlet Letter... Gosh, she's got such great taste in literature, that sweetheart... It even impresses me...!"

**August 3:**

"Urgh, Sakuya-san came in and 'discovered' us the other day, debating about The Secret Garden. I ended up stopping her from immediately trying to shove knives down Marisa's throat, thinking she was intruding again.

But now that I've explained the situation, she, Remilia, Flan, and even that _China _are peeking into the library after Marisa's come in at eight and sat herself at the second to last bookshelf in the third column. They're interrupting us every five seconds, it seems!

'Hey, Patchouli-san, your playmate is over again, aru!'

'Oh, Miss Knowledge, please excuse me. Let me just drop off this tea and I'll leave you two alone.'

'Uuuuu, how come Mari-chan always comes to play with _youuu, _Pachu-chan? Are you giving her some special reading _lessons_, Pachu-chan?'

'Patchy, dear, you and Marisa aren't doing a little bit more than just _book talk _in here, are you? Koakuma, you ought to keep an eye on those two kids for me!'

Even Koakuma is giving me these mischievous looks! And I mean, like, more devilish than _usual!_

They all completely misunderstand! We just have a mutual love for literature, and magic, and the pursuit of knowledge. That's _all, mukyuu!  
><em>And love for this Sherlock Holmes series. Marisa is _so_ right; Doyle is _brilliant!"_

**August 9:**

"The Time Traveler's Wife was just so amazing; I don't really know how to express it! I loved it, sincerely!

I mean, I _can _time travel, potentially, with enough work, and we have a certain 'human' maid resident who can stop it, control it.

However, Audrey Niffenegger is a positive genius! The concept was portrayed so cleverly, originally, beautifully... not to mention time travel doesn't even _exist _in the real world! Such an idea, it must be so unorthodox and revolutionary, as those humans have never experienced it or had the pleasure of knowing it, yet this book was so intelligent in that aspect...

Oh, boy, I'm almost forgetting that these authors, these books, they're _from the real world._ Wait, why am I saying that? Gensokyo is real enough. The _outside _world, I should say. The outside world...

What's wrong with me?

I'm turning into Marisa; shouldn't that bother me? A silly little 'normal human' worshipper. Now that I think about it, _all _I've been reading are Yukari's books lately, and I haven't touched my translations, my taxonomies, my documents, in _weeks!_

Next, I'll be tacking 'Ze's to the ends of all my sentences!

This isn't right!

I am of pure youkai blood; I am Patchouli Knowledge, a pure-bred youkai magician! Not like that human black-white or that phony little 'seven colored puppeteer' girl who cheated her way into long life with that grimoire. I live here, I love it here, I need no place other than my study, I need no one other than myself!

But why do I feel so...

Conflicted? Upset?

...Is this that feeling people call...

Confused?

I'm never confused...!

Mukyuu, I just... I don't know what to do, how to feel.

Marisa has blasted past the 'T's, 'U's, and 'V's and is now on 'W' with War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy."

**August 16:**

"Is it just me, or is Marisa slowing down?

She read The Turn of the Screw, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Treasure Island in less than a week a bit ago, but she took absolutely forever on Watership Down and only today is she hesitantly concerning herself with Wuthering Heights.

She's spending more time talking to me (and attempting to do as much with Koakuma) than she does reading; she's getting up and having lengthy conversations with the maids when they do as little as bring a cup of tea.

Is it wrong to be happy that she's taking a little longer to finish that d*mn bookshelf?

...Is it wrong to feel so scared?

Will she still come and visit me after she's put down that last book in the 'Z' section?

Will she care about me when I have nothing that interests her?

I want to tell myself that of course she will; I'm actually content when I say that over the past few months, she and I have grown so much closer. We're friends. It's... ridiculous! We weren't even like this during the whole Subterranean incident...

I haven't seen a single thievery from her, as promised, and Reimu even came in yesterday asking if Marisa was here. (Which she was.)

That prissy shrine maiden actually thanked me for keeping Marisa away from her shrine and all the other places in Gensokyo where she'd usually be spending her time tricking and stealing. She _thanked _me.

Strangest experience of my life, I'll tell you that.

What if Marisa thinks I'm a dork now that she sees how I spend my days? What if she's still offended by how I refuse to speak of the outside world? What if she thinks I'm some scaredy-cat shut-in who's actually just frightened of the thought of ever going back...?

What if that's right?

I miss her already and she's not even gone yet.

The scariest thing isn't my fear of her leaving me, my fear of the outside world, the fear of being alone, none of that can even compare.  
>I'm so, so scared...<p>

I think I love her."

The clock chimed 8 AM; I slammed my grimoire shut abruptly when I heard the door creak open. Marisa Kirisame golden eyes met mine and we both smiled by reflex.

(I'm so screwed.)

The black-white sat herself in front of the second to last bookshelf in the third column on August 24th...

"Well, it's time to finish up Wuthering Heights, ze. You should try it when I'm done, Patchy... Say, what's this next book called... 'The Yearling' by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings... Hey, I'm on the... I'm on the 'Y's already, Patchouli...! Da-ze..."

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><p>Still not liking the title, but is it too late to change it?<p>

Meh.


	5. Curiosities

I definitely like this chapter. i'm_ very_ lazy about proofreading, especially when I just go out and write chapters this long and look at the clock and curse, sooo… Anyway, I apologize for hiatus, new computer and Christmas and school.

Completely unrelated to me getting The World Ends with You and Portal.

luv, luv.

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><p><strong><em>Curiosities<em>**

_When you're in no position to question...curiosity kills the cat._

"Hey, Tokiko, while you're here... Could you do me a favor and watch the shop?"

"Aughhh, why today? It's so slow, nobody's come in all week."

"And that's exactly why I feel I can trust you with it for now."

"You're gonna' be bankrupt by June if you keep this up," the ever sassy youkai grumbled, folding a corner of Rinnosuke Morichika's desk calendar back and forwards until the crease became a tear.

The aforementioned owner of Kourindou, an antique shop nestled quaintly in the Forest of Magic, sighed at the blue-highlighted youkai girl, "June passed two months ago, dear; it's September."

"D*mn. You don't say? Makes no difference; you're bankrupt," she giggled, moving behind the counter to take Rinnosuke's place as he got up to leave.

Deciding to ignore her mockery, the half-youkai fastened a satchel to his belt and hurried out the door. "I only need a bit of fresh air; thanks, Tokiko-san."

As he sighed, taking in the refreshing scent of recently cycled oxygen, uncontaminated by the smell of dust and Byakuren knows what was growing in that pot he kept around, Rinnosuke couldn't help but admit somewhere deep in his mind… Tokiko was right. Kourindou had never really been much of a… busy store, but… lately it'd been hard to keep up. He supposed things started really going downhill last April or so, when Yakumo Yukari-san, his store's supplier, suddenly demanded she recall a whopping amount of merchandise. (Rinnosuke was in no position to refuse.)

Of course, nobody was really that interested in that case of book… Although he had managed to sell one to Izayoi-san once. A couple years ago.

Leaning against a tree (the Forest of Magic happens to have a lot of those, you know) and straightening his glasses out, the half-youkai cringed with humility as he faced reality: there was only one girl in Gensokyo who bought those books, and after he had told her where they'd all gone, well, he hadn't seen her since. Rinnosuke couldn't help but have felt a sort of attraction to her, not romantic, but like a father to the little black magician girl-

"Marisa Kirisame!"

Rinnosuke jumped; there was a small party of people coming down the path, and somehow, it was one of those moments you might see in movies where the character feels the need to hide in the bushes as they passed.

"Marisa, Marisa Kirisame, my human daughter, whom I have protected all her human life, ever since her human mother passed, and you send her to a purple-headed druggie otaku youkai's library? Even better, in a vampire's mansion filled with little fairies and monsters and, oh Byakuren, have you _heard _the stories about the girl they keep downstairs?"

Ah, he recognized that voice now. Mr. Kirisame; a former employer, and young Marisa's real father. Arrogant as it may seem, (although it was not,) he still considered himself much better suited for the job… Actually, he considered Reimu's pet turtle could do the job better than Mr. Kirisame did. (Although Rinnosuke was never in any position to speak up about it.)

"Oh, hush, Mr. K. Didn't I say to trust Yukarin?" a woman, large umbrella in hand, laughed a laugh that could only have belonged to Yakumo Yukari-san. The gap youkai paused and turned about face, speaking to Marisa's father with her usual audacity, enough to dare push her nose just inches away from his face.

Boy, did Rinnosuke hate when she did that to him. At least, he thought he hated it… erm… good hate.

"Look, the books were effective when Rinnosuke was selling 'em to her, and occasionally… lending them to her until she died, if you get what I mean," she smiled.

The shikigami Chen, who was cartwheeling ahead of the two with Ran struggling to keep up, called out, "You mean steaaaling, nya?"

"Ol' Rinno' didn't like Marisa becoming interested in the outside world, and he put most of them away and tried to sell her his antiques instead," she smiled, "…And of course that only made the black-white even more curious about those dusty old hardcovers."

"We stole 'em from a library the humans call 'Congress,' you know. Nowhere near as large as Voile, but it had to do," the kitsune Ran piped in.

"Like I said things were effective. However, things weren't effective enough," Yukari continued. "And so I think, who does Marisa spend more time with other than Rinnosuke? Where does Marisa spend more time in than the Forest of Magic? Where does Marisa get her influencee, her knowledge? Hm?"

Mr. Kirisame, his dark hat forever shading the emotion of his hat, still appeared a bit unnerved. "Don't ask me, I'm nervous enough in this monster forest!"

"Monster forest? This is the Forest of Magic, darling, where your talented teenager's house, in which she built herself I realize, resides. You don't dare say you've never visited on your own accord?"

"Of course not! If Marisa wishes to risk her life in this… this dungeon of weeds, then let her; I'm unhappy enough in the human village with the werewolf teacher and what not…"

Rinnosuke rolled his eyes, sighing from in the underbrush where he had sought a hiding place. Didn't Mr. Kirisame earlier state that he wished to protect the girl? Yet parading about on a broom a mile into the sky she goes… the man never changed, did he? Of course, Rinnosuke was in no position to interrupt.

"Now, since you don't know the answer yourself, Mr. K, lemme' tell you: that purple druggie otaku youkai's library is where Marisa learns half her tricks. The others she copies. Smart girl you have there, you know," Yukari grinned, only for the man at her side to roll his eyes. "We take all the human world books from ol' Kourin, stuff 'em in the shut-in girl's shelves, Marisa can't resist. It's sort of mostly like a lending library. The shut-in has a crush on her anyway, so that's convenient, and Marisa just loves impressing her. She's nearly read every book in that shelf. I bet she could clear out Voile before she dies. Smart girl, I tell you, and you should see the size of Voile, beautiful library; I do silently compliment Patchouli on it without actually saying it out loud…"

"Can we just get out of here? I feel like some zombie fairy's going to jump me any minute!" he cried out, barely having paid attention to what Yukari was saying.

Rinnosuke, on the other hand, was heavily overwhelmed with what he now knew.

"Alright, alright, lemme' just ask Rinnosuke for this last bunch of books. I didn't pick 'em up before, because they're mostly atlases. Crappy reading, surely, but I want to make sure dear little Marisa has a some more time to ponder her life choices, if you know what I mean…" her voice drifted quieter as she started walking off into the distance, but Rinnosuke still clearly heard what Mr. K said next.

"Although I don't exactly agree with your methods, Miss Yakumo, as long as you get her out of Genoskyo by the end of the year as agreed, I will be satisfied."

Knowing the shortcuts (while Yukari was forced to stay strictly on the path to keep from letting Mr. K get a heart attack) Rinnosuke made it back to Kourindou before the business pair and the shikigami pushed open the creaky (it wasn't very… well-used) door open to his store, Tokiko giggling at the twig poking out of his hair.

There was so much Rinnosuke wanted to say to Mr. Kirisame's blatantly plastic smile; there was so much he wanted to scream at the once kind-seeming (or at least _decent_) Yukari as she poked her nose inches away from his, asking for the atlases he kept in the back. There was so much Rinnosuke wanted to do as she explained that a problem was present in them, a sort of toxin that they could give off, and as such she had to forbid him from selling them any longer.

There was so much more Rinnosuke wished he had done as he watched them leave the Kourindou, Mr. K complaining of the dust that could be youkai cursed somehow, Yukari and Ran laughing at something Chen muttered in response, Tokiko cheering that she had brought customers.

There was so much more Rinnosuke wished he had done as he sat alone in Kourindou on an autumn evening, a battered "We're Closed" sign visible from the front window, not waiting for or even _wanting _customers.

There was so much more Rinnosuke wished he had done as he, one winter day, locked himself in the back room and wept.

There was so much more he wished he had done that day, but Rinnosuke had been in no position to object.

* * *

><p><em>What Rinnosuke did not hear: <em>

_"Although I don't exactly agree with your methods, Ms Yakumo, as long as you get her out of Genoskyo by the end of the year as agreed, I will be satisfied."_

_"I don't intend to disappoint, Mr. K."_

_"Of course. I have full faith in you. However, if someone else were in this same position as you, and were to fail, they would be pretty afraid, hm?"_

_"…I suppose so, Sir."_

_"Yes, yes, and they would by no means slack off, yes?"_

_"Of course not, Sir."_

_"Completely unrelated, but how is that shrine under construction going?"_

_"We finished just last month the final touch-ups. We invited you to the party; the place is not so far from the village..."_

_"Ah yes, Hakurei shrine. That Reimu girl, Marisa calls that shrine maiden her best friend. Is she a nice girl?"_

_"Yes, yes Reimu is… quite a sweetheart, in my opinion..."_

_"Now that I think of it, wasn't it your fault her shrine ended up such a wreck last year?"_

_"...Yes, sir."_

_"She was quite upset, yes? How upset?"_

_"First time I ever saw her cry…"_

_"I bet you wouldn't want to see Miss Reimu cry again, would you?"_

_"No, sir."_

_"Especially not when it's your own fault; no, that would feel horrible. I can't even imagine the turmoil you were in."_

_"No… no, sir."_

_"So I imagine you would do anything to avoid such a thing happening."_

_"Yes… yes, sir, yes I would."_

_"Yes, very good. Now, how did we get to a topic so dreary as that? Must be this dreadful forest; ah, look, there's the half-monster's house. Mr. Morichika. Used to be an employee of mine, nice boy, if it weren't for the youkai qualities in him…"_

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><p><em>(somewhat spoily)<em>

_NOTES_

_-Don't know who Tokiko is? I needed someone to watch Kourindou, so I picked the weak youkai that got beat up and robbed by the so-called 'sweetheart' Reimu (haha, Yukari) in Curiosities of Lotus Asia. She's often associated with Rinnosuke, so I thought what the hey. _

_-Marisa has a father, that's for sure, but I took artistic license and crap on him here, making him into an overprotective-yet-not-protective-at-all-youkai-hating-human-guy-who-just-wants-a-normal-daughter. He's stuck in Gensokyo as it is for currently unspecified reasons, and somewhat despises the whole magic-y thing his daughter has going. Also he wears a hat._

_-The construction on the shrine is probably as a result of the Scarlet Weather Rhapsody events, where the newly rebuilt shrine is destroyed by Yukari, claiming it was built for Tenshi's selfish purposes… Yukari was prooooobably doing one of her rare good things, but Reimu dearest was rather upset._

_-In case you really can't take a hint, the last part [that Rinno' didn't hear] was meant to point out that Yukari is being forced into aiding Mr. K in normal-a-fying his daughter, what with her 'sweetheart' Reimu on the line. (Robbing, impulsive, lazy *ss is the definition of sweetheart for Yukarin)_

_-I'm gonna finish this story, I'M GONNA FINISH IT_


	6. Stage 4

**Stage Four: Koakuma**  
><em>She knew no boundaries but for the one she loved. <em>

"Good morning, Marisa."

"Ohayou, da, ze!" she replied, with her usual energy. Or rather, an imitation of her usual energy. There was a sort of dampened air about the magician as she sat herself in front of the second to last bookshelf in the third column and searched for the book she was reading, The Zero Stone by Andre Norton.

Again.

For the thirteenth time this month.  
>September was drawing to a chilly close, and Marisa was still not finished with that book.<p>

But could I call her out on it?  
>Nope, no, of course not, because somewhere inside me I was hoping she'd take years––I wished she'd read that book for all eternity. I wished with all my heart that she'd adore that book as immensely as it adored her, and that it could give her all the loving care that it knew she deserved and would have no greater pleasure than in carrying such a thing out. I wished that she would never, never put it down for a second, and never leave it to feel lonely again for the rest of its long, isolated lifetime.<p>

(Psst, I'm not talking about the book anymore.)

Of course, I realized that I couldn't keep Marisa there; there were things for her to see, things for her to do. She wanted to enjoy life and deserved to, and just because a shut-in like me loved her didn't mean I had the right to lock her up with me.  
>For today, though…<p>

"Patchouli, where is that book I've been reading?" she inquired, poking her cute head out from behind the bookshelves.

"Where did you leave it yesterday?" I didn't look up from Jane Eyre, but a devious smile crept onto my face.

"Right here! It's the last book on the shelf; it's not hard to miss, and it's not there, ze!"

"Why, I swear, Kirisame-san, don't tell me you're losing my books!"

"No, no I returned it right there yesterday! I remember it distinctly, distinctly I say, ze!"

"Now, don't think rude of me, Kirisame-san, but I can't keep out of my suspicion that you've stolen it and now you're trying to pass it off as lost! What audacity, trying to make a fool out of my excellent accountancy when it comes to my beloved books. What shall be your

punishment, I do wonder…?"

"No, no, I've been framed! It's… it's her!" she pointed at Koakuma and looked back to me. "She took it, didn't she?"

"Who did?" I grinned.

"Wha––!" Marisa started as she saw that Koakuma had disappeared from sight, leaving an only slightly opaque cloud of smoke in her place. "The little red devil! She was just here, I swear I––AH!"  
>The "little red devil" reappeared behind Marisa, whose pointing finger swerved with the rest of her.<p>

"Hey! Hey, she's holding the book! Right there in her hands! Hand it over, da-ze, or feel the wrath of my Master Spa––"

"Where, Marisa? Who are you talking about?" I stifled my laughter with intense difficulty.

"Why––Wha––!" Her head spun comically to find Koakuma had disappeared again. "She was… Right… AH!"

It didn't take long before Marisa was on her broom playing Whack-the-Koakuma, and losing, much to my exuberant laughter, which became too great for me to suppress.

"You dare laugh at me, wench?" she said, stopping in front of me, but with a playful grin on her face.

I met her glare with one of my own. "Who are you calling a wench? You can't even catch a Stage Four midboss!"

"Well, I'll say!" she stuck her tongue out at me seductively, and took off again. In a terrible British accent, she bowed and said, "In that case, you are the princess, and I am your knight, and I shall get back your book if it's the last thing I do for m'lady," with a wide smile. I hid my face, blushing furiously, behind the pages of my book.

Not a half an hour passed before Marisa was collapsed, exhausted, on the floor. Walking over to her, I tipped the brim of her hat so I could see her face.

I produced a novel entitled The Zero Stone from my robe's sleeve. "Would now be a good time for me to tell you I have the book right here?" I smiled mischievously.

"Why, you…" she started, and for a second I thought she was going to be angry; instead, she burst into laughter. "I never would have thought that my Princess Patchouli would trick me so. I am so very deeply pained, ze!"

Even Koakuma was cackling (albeit inaudibly) as Marisa got on her knees and began spouting Shakespeare with a dramatic flourish. "The grief that does not speak whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break," she wailed, clutching the fibers of the carpet in mock-desperation.

"Tis better to bear the ills we have than fly to others that we know not of," I replied promptly.

Her eyebrows turned up with the corners of her mouth, sensing a challenge. With an exaggerated sigh, she looked off to the distance. "Love to faults is always blind, always is to joy inclined. Lawless, winged, and unconfined, and breaks all chains from every mind."

She seemed satisfied with herself, and her eyes dared for me to top her.*

"Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy rather in power than use; and keep thy friend under thine own life's key; be checked for silence, but never taxed for speech," I recited with some difficulty.

She took a deep breath. "He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need; If thou sorrow, he will weep; if thou wake, he cannot sleep: thus of every grief in heart he with thee does bear a part. These are certain signs to know faithful friend from flattering foe."

Imparted with utter precision. Did she have an outstanding memory, or what?

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."  
>Marisa seemed to ponder this deeply for a moment, before looking at in the eyes. "Patchouli, 'Who could refrain that had a heart to love and in that heart courage to make love known?'"<p>

"Speak low, if you speak of love." (I meant it, as now would be a terrible time for Sakuya to walk in. A relief to me, Koakuma had disappeared altogether now that she'd had her fun.)

Marisa laughed. "Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit, and lost without deserving."

With solemnity, and perhaps a bit of fear, creeping into my voice, I said, "'Give thy thoughts no tongue,' Marisa."

"No, 'Say as you think and speak it from your souls.'"

"Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind."

"'Love is too young to know what conscience is,' ze."

"No, I will be the pattern of all patience; I will say nothing."

She tipped my chin up and looked into my eyes saucily. "Teach not they lips such scorn, for it was made for kissing, lady, not for such contempt."

Holding strong, I turned my head away. "Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful."

"That's the Bible!"  
>"I can quote whatever I want, Kirisame-san."<p>

"Then so can I!" she crossed her arms. "Who knows how long I've loved you, you know I love you still. Will I wait a lonely lifetime? If you want me to, I will," she sang.

Her words sent shivers up my spine, but I distrusted her still. "Somehow I think the Bible is more acceptable than the Beatles," I teased. (We both had fun reading a biography on them that had an audio CD tucked into one of the pages.)

"Patchouli, right now, I think I'd give half my life for just one kiss."  
>She knew I'd remember the second half of that quote, didn't she?<br>_"Then kiss me twice."_

And kiss me twice she did, rather, more than twice, but for a moment there I experienced something I don't experience often: confusion.

Because I was on the floor of my library, and someone was kissing me, and that someone loved me, that someone told me she loved me in a hodge-podge of quotations, and I loved her too, and I was so scared, except I wasn't scared at all, and I was kissing her, I was running my fingers through her starchy blonde hair and cherishing the feeling of her rough lips moist against mine, and her hat fell off, and someone was teasing my mouth open with her playful tongue, and I was giving in to her as she pulled off my robe as if she couldn't stand a fraction of an inch's distance between us, and my arms were around her neck, and I couldn't put away this feeling that I never, ever wanted to let go of this someone again.

All this I understood, but––that this someone was Marisa, my Marisa Kirisame, and I was Patchouli Knowledge, and I loved her, and she loved me––suddenly every bloody thing in the entire world was so, so very right.

"I have a confession, Patchouli," she said when we pulled away after having remembered that breathing was a necessary life function.  
>"…What's that?" I asked, frightened.<p>

She rolled over to face me with that sparkling, trademark Marisa smile. Honestly, I don't think I will ever forget the way her flecked green eyes sparkled up at me, the way her arms wrapped around me, her voice in mock apology: "I finished The Zero Stone two weeks ago."

"Then what are you doing her, little thief, if your presence is not only for literary means?" I dared myself, fear still blatantly present in me, to say.

"I'm here for you. I love you, Patchouli," Marisa whispered into my nightgown.  
>"…I-I…I love you too, Marisa…"<p>

Still embracing each other, we sat in the silence of Voile, the both of us seeming to have trouble breathing, we could hardly take in what had happened. Weeping into her dress, I pulled Marisa against me.

"Whoa, why are you crying, ze? You're making me cry!"

Embarrassed, I stuttered, "I–I'm so happy."

Tears ran down Marisa's face, and I couldn't keep myself from kissing them off her cheek.

"But what are we supposed to do now, ze…?"

"Sorry to interrupt your little pow-wow, but I've got a present," a voice suddenly called brazenly from the open window. Miss Yukari Yakumo, followed by her usual shikigami entourage, here carrying evidently heavy boxes, let herself in.

"What the hell are you doing here? Can't you learn to knock on the fr––" I started, until Marisa jumped up and cried out,  
>"Oooh, what are these?"<p>

"Atlases. Maps. Boring as heck, but I heard you were out of reading material, little black-white," she said in that cheeky Yukari tone. "Arrange them yourself, I'm going back to sleep."

The boxes were set promptly in front of the second bookshelf in the third column, and the Yakumos left as suddenly as they had came. All except for Chen, who, distracted, began to look through a book called "Black Cat Atlas," until the kitsune Ran hollered with the usual ear-splitting volume, "CHEEEEEEEEEENNNN!"

Marisa and I were silent for a moment after Chen had cartwheeled out the window, before we broke down in giggles.

"Looks like we have a ton of reading to do; I'm afraid you're going to have to start spending your nights here too, Marisa," I teased.

"Only if my princess will let me."

The last thing I remembered before falling asleep that night was Marisa's head on my shoulders, our backs supported by the second bookshelf in the third column, and the capital of New Zealand.

* * *

><p>I quite like this chapter.<p>

*That's what she said.


End file.
